


Shakespearian Accounts

by LastNightFanfictionSavedMyLife



Series: A New Start [14]
Category: Belgravia (TV)
Genre: Accounting, Angst, Class Differences, Friendship, Gen, Repressed Feelings, Servants, Shakespeare Quotations, Victorian, Victorian Attitudes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-27
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-18 21:02:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29739834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LastNightFanfictionSavedMyLife/pseuds/LastNightFanfictionSavedMyLife
Summary: She tries to do the accounts. He tries to learn Shakespeare.-A plan to boost his meagre pension fund and to give him a comfortable life after retirement has all gone terribly wrong for charismatic butler Turton! He's been given the old 'heave ho', kicked out on his ear with only the most basic of references. What is he going to do next?The lone wolf that is Amos Turton has to start all over again. Learning how to fit into this new, weird household is tricky when you're used to following your own rules. Within the confines of the rigid Victorian class system of course. Well, mostly... He's keeping quiet, biding his time and thinking of the money and his pension pot!Victorian London is really not a kind place for the serving classes and definitely not a good place to be destitute and poor. Which he is in danger of becoming...-Set in the Belgravia - TV Series and Book verse. All this takes place after episode 6 - the finale of the TV series - and after the book has finished.It is the early 1840s.-Alright Bambinos, please read and enjoy!
Series: A New Start [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2014321
Kudos: 1





	Shakespearian Accounts

He sought her out for a change. Finding her in the library rearranging the books on their shelves again.

"So Ma'am, I was thinking today… that maybe I should teach you the basics of doing the account books properly?"

"But I don't need to, Mr Turton. You do them so splendidly!" she smiled up at him.

"Well it's just in case something were to happen to me, then you'd at least know what to do, until you found a new Butler."

The book that was held in her hand was slammed down onto the shelf. She stood, her eyes blazing. "No! I want none of that talk! Nothing will happen to you! I forbid it!" she closed the distance between them, glaring up at him, red faced, her chest heaving. 

He smirked. He'd seen proper anger, seen his father's raw edged rage. Felt his unforgiving fists land upon him. Raw, pure emotion, snapping at him like a frothy, bloody jawed, rabid dog. She was nothing like that. Instead, she looked rather amusing when angry. Their height difference meant that she had to crane her neck upwards to wag her finger at him. She reminded him of a small feisty kitten. Hissing and spitting its high pitched anger. He stifled a laugh, having to bite the side of his mouth.

"There will be no such talk of you _leaving_ or… or of anything of the like happening to you!"

'Well… maybe I'll suddenly find I've inherited a fortune from a long lost great aunt that I never knew existed?" His withheld laughter escaped.

She paused. Narrowing her eyes at him and dropping her hand down. "Well then… In _that_ case… you'll just move in next door and continue with doing the accounts for me," she waved a hand.

"Maybe we can make a deal? Maybe… maybe if you let me teach you the accounts, then I'll let you teach me some _blasted_ Shakespeare?" he tried.

"Oh! Now I think that's a very fair deal! I know how you do so loath when I try to explain the hidden meanings and convoluted plots of his plays!" she chuckled.

"A deal then?" he asked.

"Yes! A deal!" she agreed, smiling up at him.

\- 

She's sitting at his desk, in his office, trying her best to scratch out the answer to the problem that he had set her.

She wasn't having much luck. Numbers had never been her strong point and having him watch her every mark on the page from over her shoulder wasn't exactly helping.

"I'm not sure if I've got this right… am I supposed to take this column away from that one or… the other way around?"

"Hmmm," he leaned over from where he was standing behind her, pointing at the paper. "Add these columns up, then take that total," he pointed at one column, "from the total of this one," he pointed at the next one.

"Um…" she peered to her left, trying not to move her face. He was right _there_ . She finally breathed out as he moved back, standing up straight again. Her pen froze in her hand as her eyes tracked him, watching as he walked around to the front of his desk. _Stop it!_ she chided herself. _Keep yourself calm! I mustn't let him see how flustered I am with his nearness!_ she warned herself. _That rose meant nothing. A gift for a friend is all. He obviously doesn't think of me that way! Keep still. I am a countess, he a butler, there is nothing to be had down that path but heartache and hurt!_ she reminded herself. _Do not ruin the friendship you've just found with such base emotions!_

She took a deep breath and dipped her shaky pen into the inkwell. Dropping her eyes back to the page, trying to add up the numbers. She heard him move and peeked up through her eyelashes, he was walking back around to stand behind her again. _Dammit!_ she thought, _I've lost my place and will have to start all over!_ She crossed through her workings out and started adding from the beginning again. Trying to concentrate on the numbers in front of her and not the distraction of his standing and _breathing_ behind her. 

A blob of ink fell from the nib of her borrowed pen as it hovered shakily over the paper. The ink made a _splot_ noise on the page.

He reached around her, grabbing his blotter, from where it sat in front of her. He leaned closer, his arm brushing against her as he slowly rolled the blotter on the page, soaking up the excess ink. 

She closed her eyes, keeping deathly still, as she felt his breath on the side of her face.

He leant around her again as he replaced the blotter back in its place. 

She finally released her held breath as he stood up straight again. 

"Ah… I feel like I'm back at school again Mr Turton! You remind me of our headmaster," she laughed nervously, trying to distract her or him, she wasn't quite sure.

"He was a goodly man I hope?" he asked.

"Um… yes and no, he was always giving me horrible hard stares! He was our mathematics teacher. Maybe that's why I could never understand the subject? His horrible _stares_ would have put Medusa to shame!" she shivered.

He spun on his heels where he was pacing in front of his desk. He faced her and… _stared_ …

She burst out laughing. "No, on second thoughts, maybe I was wrong about your resemblance," she covered her laughs by holding a hand over her mouth.

He tutted, frowning to himself. _My hard stares usually wither most people!_ He was perplexed. _That stare was the one I always used on particularly recalcitrant footmen._ He tried again, this time he raised the stakes. _This stare never fails._ He stared and narrowed his eyes. Her tinkling laughter was the result. _Hmm_ … 

"Right! I think it's time we looked at Assets = Liabilities + Equity!"

She groaned.

He laughed.

-

"How about this one?"

As You Like It - “Thou art like a toad; ugly and venomous.”

"Ha! I've known a few ladies maids that were venomous, just like _that!_ " he laughed.

"Hmm," she laughed at his smirk, "how about this one?"

Henry IV Part II - “You scullion! You rampallian! You fustilarian! I’ll tickle your catastrophe!” he read, frowning.

"Catastrophe means bottom," she pointed out to him.

He laughed. "Well, that makes so much more sense… I don't think! Why would he want to tickle his bottom?"

"It means that he'll kick him up the, you know, tickle his bottom with his foot?"

"Ah…! Why didn't he just write that then, instead of all the convoluted meanings? Just say what you mean and be done with it!"

"Um… yes… sometimes it's not that easy though… to do that," she said, looking away.

"Yes… you're right…" he glanced at her then looked down at the book again, frowning.

"How about this one, I mean this is fairly straightforward isn't it?" she asked.

Richard III - “Out of my sight! thou dost infect my eyes.”

They both laughed.

"Or this one?" she pointed at another page.

Coriolanus - “More of your conversation would infect my brain.”

He snorted.

"Let's see what you think of this one then. Advanced Shakespearian insults!" she flicked through the book, pointing at another phrase.

Henry IV Part I - “You starveling, you eel-skin, you dried neat’s-tongue, you bull’s-pizzle, you stock-fish–O for breath to utter what is like thee!-you tailor’s-yard, you sheath, you bow-case, you vile standing tuck!” He frowned at the words, then read them again.

"Starveling?"

"Scarecrow."

"...dried neat’s-tongue?"

"Dried-out ox’s tongue."

"Bull's pizzle?"

"Yes… er… it's… the bull's… you know… _male part_ … " she blushed.

"Ahh…" he laughed. "Tailor's yard?"

"Yardstick."

"That's hardly an insult! And this one… Bow-case? Oh, violin's bow case?"

"Yes!"

"Again, why? Sheath…?"

"Yeeees… er… _lady parts_ …" she blushed again.

"Oh… Um… You vile standing tuck?"

"Er… you disgusting erect sword… Um…"

"Ooooh! More _lewd_ references! Did Mrs Brown write this?" he laughed. 

She giggled, enjoying his laughter and joking.

"That makes better sense now!" he chuckled.

"Er… maybe these ones next?"

King Lear - “Thou art a boil, a plague sore, an embossed carbuncle in my corrupted blood.”

He sniggered.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream - “Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit, for I am sick when I do look on thee.”

They both fell about giggling and laughing.

"Maybe Shakespeare isn't so difficult after all," he said. "Maybe I just needed the right teacher," he smiled over at her.

"At least I'm having more luck as a teacher than you are with those blasted accounts," she said, scrunching up her nose at the thought of all the horrendous numbers.

"Hmmm. Maybe you just need more lessons?" he peered over at her, an eyebrow raised.

"Um… if you think that I would benefit from them? I mean, there's no point teaching me if you think I'm a lost cause?"

"Oh no, a few more lessons and you'll be adding up like a natural!" he told her. "But only if you would like to continue though, my Lady?" he asked.

She paused. Part of her was utterly delighted at the possibility of spending more time with him, another part of her chided herself for wanting to keep such close company with a _servant_. That part she squashed away instantly! Another part of her relished the opportunity to have him _that_ close to her again. Yet another part told her to stop being a fool, chasing after something that could never be.

She looked over at him. He was looking at her. Waiting, fidgeting with the pages of the book that sat on his lap, the same book that was jogging on top of his bouncing leg. 

"Yes… I think more lessons would be in order for me… but only if you agree though Mr Turton…?"

His leg bouncing and fidgeting ceased and he smiled over at her.

"Of course, my Lady. It will be my pleasure!" 


End file.
